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@CookHealthBiz hosts TweetChat on doing more with less.

One of the most important things I do on a regular basis as director of Healthcare Business Solutions in Europe is listen and talk to our customers. And what better way to encourage discussions with customers than to host an open forum where they can share ideas and discuss the best pathways forward. So last week, I hosted our very first TweetChat with our Healthcare Business Solutions handle, @CookHealthBiz.

And what a success it was! For those who were able to join us, I’d like to thank you for your participation and especially for sharing your perspective. For those who weren’t able to participate, here are some of the highlights.

Procurement and clinical relationships
We asked participants if suppliers can be too focused on clinical relationships. Two of my favorite responses were:

We always have the most success when we have all of the right people around the table. Only by including everyone—procurement, clinical, and supplier teams—have we been able to help our customers fully reach our shared savings and outcomes goals.

Working together
Next we wanted to hear about how procurement and clinical teams can work together successfully. @kjjsyr had some good thoughts on this subject:

Keith’s opinion is really valuable. Procurement often is seen as having only a tactical role in the healthcare process and as focusing only on price. But that is not always true, and procurement often plays an important strategic role in creating a sustainable industry.

What we can do differently
To close our chat, we asked our followers, “What is one thing that suppliers could do differently to improve procurement relationships?” I really liked this response from Steve:

We wholeheartedly believe in working closely with procurement so that, together, we can make change happen with others within a trust. We’ve seen success with this formula and think it’s one of the best ways to approach supplier/procurement partnerships. You can read about one such success with an NHS trust here.

I’ll be back later in the summer to host another chat. Stay tuned for details, and in the meantime, continue to send me your thoughts on how we can continue to improve supplier and procurement partnerships.